Mohammad Yaseen Sofi is a PhD scholar at Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST- K. He completed his Bachelor's degree from SKUAST-K in 2018. He is currently working under the guidance Dr. Khalid Z. Masoodi on bioprospecting and DNA barcoding of Kale (Brassica oleracea var Acephala). In the course of his MSc programme, he made outstanding contributions in rice research in the field of Plant Biotechnology. He has filed one US patent application in 2021. Additionally, he has extensive knowledge of bioinformatics analysis tools, which he acquired while attending various national/international seminars and workshops. Afshana Shafi did her Bachelors from SKUAST-K, followed by Masters in Plant Biotechnology from SKUAST-Kashmir, Shalimar, J&K, India. Currently, she is pursuing Ph.D from Division of Plant Biotechnology, SKUAST- K, on "Mining and Expression Analysis of Differentially Expressing Genes between selected scab resistant and susceptible apple (Malus domestica Borkh) cultivars under the guidance of Dr Khalid Masoodi. She conducted an extensive study on Expression Profiling of Near-Isogenic Lines (NILs) Carrying Blast Resistance Genes Pi9 and Pi54 in the Background of Rice Cultivar Mushk Budji as part of her MSc research programme. From achieving the twentieth position in the state of J&K during her tenth board examination to achieving the first rank during her bachelor's programme, she has always been a meritorious student with an outstanding academic and extracurricular record. In 2017-18, she was awarded with BSc. merit scholarship by SKUAST-K. Additionally during the MSc programme Afshana Shafi has obtained second position. Moreover, she has a strong hold on a variety of bioinformatic analytic softwares, which she acquired throughout her studies in the field of Biotechnology and bioinformatics. Dr. Khalid Zaffar Masoodi is a young scientist who works as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Plant Biotechnology at the Sher-e Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Kashmir (India). He holds a Master's degree in Biotechnology and a doctorate in Plant Biotechnology. Dr. Masoodi is the recipient of numerous awards, including the SERB Early Career Research Award 2016, the SBUR Travel Award in the United States of America in 2012, and the Society of Endocrinology Journal Award in 2018 at Glasgow United Kingdoms. Dr. Masoodi has a distinguished academic record, having qualified for the CSIR-UGC net in Life Sciences, the DBT-BET JRF, and the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and Sciences (GATE) while doing his Masters in Biotechnology. Dr. Masoodi has filed Six patent applications in last 2 years, has over 12 years of teaching and research experience, and has published numerous scientific articles in the fields of cancer research, human disease research, and biotechnology research. His laboratory (Transcriptomics Laboratory, often known as K-Lab, after the Klenow fragment) at SKUAST-K is fully equipped with fluorescence imaging, real-time PCR, cell culture, and Western blotting including other state-of-the-art equipment. His research interests span multiple dimensions, including transcriptomics of plant stress biology (biotic/abiotic) and cancer biology. Apart from that, he is extensively involved in the research of new drugs from medicinal plants. Additionally, he is a co-author of Advanced Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Methods (Academic Press, 2020).
